Previous Next

32 Action-packed Levels! 11 Different Scenarios! 48 Colours On Screen! 25 End Level Guardians! 3000 Frames Of Animation! 50 Frames Per Second! 300 Different Aliens! Totally Naff Load Of Nobby Old Trainspotter Waffle On The Back Of The Box Covering Up For Frighteningly Crap And Tedious Game! We Thought So...!

So... when this Armalyte-style horizontally-scrolling shoot-'em-up actually turned out to be a seriously nippy and atmospheric blasterama with stylish graphics, quite a bit of imagination, a neat line in customised power-ups (similar to the coin-op and MegaDrive game Hellfire, if you're interested), reasonably groovy (albeit in a Jean Michel Jarre kind of way) in-game music and sound, and a seriously demanding but not unfair level of difficulty, well, you can just imagine how surprised we all were.

Necronom initially looks totally uninspiring, and the next-to-useless manual doesn't help a bit when it comes to deciphering the moderately complex system of weapon customising, but switch the autofire on, give it a couple of plays, and it sneakily hooks you. (If you haven't got an autofire on your joystick, ignore this review entirely - you've got no chance!)

It's very tricky, but perseverance pays dividends (unlike in Armalyte), and the later levels are different and pretty enough to make it worth keeping at. If you've finished R-Type II, this is your ideal next purchase.

Actually pretty damn good blaster with a nice line in presentation and a challenge to tax even zapping experts. Auto-firing joysticks compulsory, though.